The
reason the Wisconsin Legislature has become such a total public embarrassment
is the same reason why so many members of hot rock ’n’ roll bands die young.

If
people with very little maturity or acquired wisdom achieve sudden success that
allows them to do anything without any controls whatsoever, the consequences
can be really painful to watch.

The
tea party backlash elections of 2010 gave right-wing Republicans total control
of Wisconsin government by winning not only the governor’s office but also a
majority in both houses of the Legislature.

Ever
since then, they’ve been on a rampage much like rock bands destroying hotel
rooms, except destructive legislators have the power to smash decades of laws
and acceptable behavior.

It
was no surprise the Assembly’s final session ended with an infantile
early-morning session that one legislator compared to an out-of-control middle
school.

Along
the way, Republicans refused to vote on a resolution remembering the 26
children and adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School and created a
brazenly unconstitutional state license plate carrying the slogan “Choose Life”
to funnel state money to an anti-abortion group.

After
a while, it becomes really difficult to keep track of exactly how many
unconstitutional laws have been passed by this Legislature.

Courts
have routinely declared many of its major legislative initiatives
unconstitutional at least in part. That includes the destruction of collective
bargaining rights for public employees, requiring citizens to show photo IDs to
vote and requiring abortion clinic doctors to have admitting privileges at
nearby hospitals.

Why
should Republican legislators limit themselves to doing only what’s
constitutional when they have total power to pass whatever they want?

And
it was such bad taste for Democrats to bring up the dead children at Sandy Hook
just a day after the wounding and arrest of an armed man reported as a potentially
“active shooter” at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

There
already have been so many people committing mass murders in Wisconsin at a
temple, a church and a spa that it’s becoming really embarrassing that
Republican legislators have absolutely no intentions of doing anything to limit
access to deadly weapons in this state.

Amending
the Constitution

But
that doesn’t mean our Republican state representatives aren’t ready to take a
strong stand on other important issues in the news.

That’s
why the Assembly took swift action to punish anyone who breaks up with a
boyfriend or girlfriend and then embarrasses their former romantic partner by
publishing naked pictures of him or her on the Internet.

The
irony, of course, is that Republicans practically invented the concept of
“revenge porn” in the form of passing mean-spirited, obscene laws to punish
anyone who disagrees with them.

In
its final flurry of legislation, the Assembly began the process of amending the
state constitution to remove widely respected jurist Shirley Abrahamson from
her position as chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court for not being a
right-wing Republican.

Basically,
right-wing Republicans don’t believe in democracy. They know the more people
vote, the harder it is for Republicans to win. Democrats routinely win
Wisconsin in presidential years when most voters turn out.

That’s
why Republicans want as many obstacles as possible to prevent people from
voting, especially if they belong to groups likely to vote Democratic such as
African Americans, Latinos, women, the elderly and students.

The
only reason Republicans haven’t passed a law requiring Democrats to undergo
vaginal ultrasounds before they’re allowed to vote is they haven’t thought of
it yet.

Another
law passed in the final days would cut back early voting and eliminate weekend
voting. Early voting would be permitted only two weeks before an election
during daytime hours on weekdays. That eliminates a whole lot of pesky working
class Democratic voters during the day.

Aside
from sabotaging elections, the other principal anti-democratic concern of
Republican legislators is to prevent voters from rising up to remove them from
office for all the rotten things they do.

Recalls
have increasingly been attempted by voters in Wisconsin not only against Gov.
Scott Walker and Republican state senators for destroying public employee
bargaining rights, but going back to the removal of Milwaukee County
supervisors and the retirement of County Executive Tom Ament that Walker himself
used as a stepping stone to the governorship.

The
Assembly passed a law to make sure they couldn’t be removed from office unless
they were charged with an actual crime or ethical violation. Being a drunken,
crack-smoking, lying public embarrassment would be OK.

That
leaves voting someone out in a regular election as the only way to get rid of
someone wrecking Wisconsin’s long-standing reputation for clean, progressive
politics.

But,
of course, if Republican legislators can prevent enough people from voting and
keep drawing corruptly gerrymandered districts to thwart the will of the
voters, that shouldn’t be any problem at all.

Recent Blogs

Poll

Scott Walker has proposed virtually eliminating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If passed, do you believe that Walker’s proposal would directly or indirectly impact the health of you or your children?